One thing which I learned in 2018
There is one thing which I learned in this year. It’s damn hard to write a valuable post like this. It takes a lot of time for research, gathering data and finding interesting connections. Sometimes it looks like a second job, but I like it. Unfortunately, you can’t week by week write about big things. Small things happened around you and they are important too. I’m still looking for an idea for this blog. In the meantime, you can enjoy my third summarise of reading and gameplay on Linux. Previous two posts you can find here and here.
Reading
The Dark Forest (ISBN 978-83-8062-842-7) and Death’s End (ISBN 978-83-8062-910-3) by Cixin Liu
I took a small break after reading the first book of series Three-Body Problem. When I know the whole story I argue that the first was the best one. It’s interesting to look at humanity when they communicate with an alien civilisation which is going to annihilate us. From the second and third part, you can learn that even the best prognosis will be challenged with reality and you might be surprised.
The VimL Primer by Benjamin Klein (ISBN 978-1-68050-040-0)
Tke book about VimL, better known as Vimscript. To be honest, this book is far far away from Drew Neil’s books like Practical Vim. Only for strong Vim believers.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (ISBN 978-83-7758-404-0)
Have you ever thought, how the world may look like if you have everything, whatever you wanted? In the Aldous novel, you can find the answer, but you may not be satisfied.
The white tiger by Aravind Adiga (ISBN 978-83-7469-833-7)
Definitely, the best book which I read in this year. I love Aravind’s irony and how he describes the dirty world. A beautiful history of a man who decided to change his life. What to say more without spoilers? You have to read it!
The DevOps 2.0 Toolkit (ISBN 978-1523917440) and The DevOps 2.1 Toolkit: Docker Swarm (ISBN 978-1542468916) both written by Viktor Farnic
You may wonder, why a C/C++ developer read this book? As low-level programmers we generate binary code for dedicated machines, we don’t need docker. You are right, but … My company grows rapidly, 4 years ago were around 30 people, right now we have more than one hundred. In old good days I had 1 machine, right now I have a few, each of them use a different version of Jenkins, different configuration, etc. I decided to find out how to deal with a scale, how easily add a new agent machine. The first book focused mostly on raw docker, the second one has a lot of repetitions but is a fresher view on swarm problem. If you are a total beginner with docker both of them it’s a good choice.
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier (ISBN 978-83-8129-243-6)
10 stories from real life. Companies or even one man hero had almost the same problems: overtime, overwork to finish a game. On the one hand, the book describes dark side of gamedev. Big companies take over smaller, reduce budget, impossible deadlines appear, dismissals. On the other hand, developers and other staff have absurd ideas, make common mistakes and they deserved to suffer. Change a game engine during development, start using new not well-known tools – you need extra time to become expert – it’s a ridiculous idea. Sometimes they have an elusive deadline on the beginning and they know about it – total madness. We all know how it ends – crunch – this word is overused in this book.
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, Vol. I and II (ISBN 978-83-7495-866-0, ISBN 978-83-7758-024-0)
I have a problem with this Nobel prize book. From one point of view, it’s a gripping story about a woman serial killer – she is perfect in her trade. From the other hand, we have a history of teacher Tengo, her platonic love from childhood. This plot is simple, but others … Secret The little people, even in the end you have no idea who they are. Moreover, we have a book inside the book and kind of time travel. Everything messed up.
End of watch by Stephen King (ISBN 978-83-7985-327-4)
Third and the last book from series Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers. Good old Stephen King. This time our killer (warning – small spoiler) uses an uncomplicated electric game for controlling players. I see here a simple metaphor for mobile phone users going around like mindless zombies.
Gameplay on Linux
Darkest Dungeon
I’m a little embarrassed to mention that I spent with this game 123 hours. I made almost every challenge from the game, I beat all bosses but I didn’t finish the final Darkest Dungeon. Half of the mentioned time I learnt how to beat each beast – they have different attacks, skills. Second half was a grind: collect money and other stuff, upgrade each building, master each hero from a team. Build a well-balanced crew is the most important part of this game. Each hero has well-known statistics like strength, armor but we have here also: stress, diseases and much more. A stressed hero may beat his companies, change position, refuse a fight. Darkest Dungeon has a lot of funny quotes and ideas. It’s the first game, where a hero refused to join to expedition because he took a day off.
Rise of Tomb Raider
I played few minutes, it crashes all the time on the beginning. Unfortunately, I have seen only a menu from this game. It surprising, because Feral Interactive released Rise of Tomb Raider. I mentioned them in this post and until now I haven’t had a problem with any of their game. I suppose that they know about half-assed Linux port – on the first screen, before the game start, you can see a notification It may don’t work well. Can you imagine similar pop up on Windows or macOS? I can’t. Hopefully, the internet is full of comments and in spare time I’m going to check some clues to see something more than a menu.
HITMAN
Since many years I wonder why most games are about killing people? This one definitely doesn’t answer on this question. I enjoyed 35 hours on hiding, sneaking, climbing and of course punching and killing. Thank you Feral Interactive for Linux port and I’m waiting for a second meeting with the agent 47.